Tag Archives: FitCrew

Unfortunately week 3 of training for the Space Coast Marathon didn’t go exactly as planned. I would actually say not even close. Oh well, lucky for me it’s still early in training and it was a step back week so no harm done!

Before I get into the weekly training recap I thought I would share a few quick things. First, I’ve decided to finally go Paleo. I added a link there if anyone is interested in the basics of what Paleo is. For me it began with eliminating dairy to determine if I had an allergy. Every day when I woke up I would have a [relatively] flat stomach and every night when I went to bed I would literally look 4 months pregnant. The bloat and discomfort became so unbearable that I decided to look into altering my diet (I hate that word, for me diet = lifestyle, not a short term thing). At FitCrew, a Paleo or Primal way of eating is encouraged (though not required) and Andrew works extensively with helping us eat the right things. So after a year and a half I finally decided to listen to him. And you know what? It works for me.

Of course I’m new to Paleo (about a month or so) but already I’ve noticed a significant decrease in the bloat and my abs are even thinking about making an appearance (this is exciting for me since my abs and I have never officially met)! My energy level is high and I feel like someone peeled a layer of gauze off my brain. I’m having fun with different recipes and enjoying researching all the hows and whys of this way of living. I’ll try to make an effort to update as I progress through this but in the meantime here are a few of my favorite Paleo blogs:

What Runs Lori <– Not sure if she is full Paleo but she has a lot of Paleo recipes.

Second, Mike and I have made some upgrades to my tri bike. We re-wrapped the bars with matching blue wrap (after youtubing a how-to), added my beloved Speed Play pedals in blue and ordered new arm pads for the aero bars. Right now it’s sitting at our LBS getting a little tune-up to make sure everything is in working order and to tighten up the bottom bracket and front hub. I can’t wait to get it back in my hot little hands and ride it! Here it is with the new matching upgrades:

Third, way back when Jena and I decided to run Space Coast Marathon we made a pact that we would run it in our sports bras (aka shirtless), weather permitting. We of course are hoping that it would be too cold for this but we’re talking about Florida in November, anything can happen with the weather. We dubbed this #operationsportsbra and have been using it as extra motivation to complete our workouts and eat the right things. I’m pretty proud to say that so far I’ve done 3 shirtless runs so far, twice in the dark (lol) and once in the broad daylight at a busy park. My confidence has come a long way but I still worry what others think. It’ll come, in time. Check out Jena’s blog to see her progress (hint: she’s been running shirtless too!)!

Week 3 Training

The reason for the setback this week? Tendonitis behind my left knee that, because I kept pushing instead of taking it easy, spread down into my left calf. I’m feeling much better today and am ready to start fresh with week 4. So here’s a look at what I did accomplish in week 3:

Monday: Planned- Rest; Actual- Rest

Tuesday: Planned- 4x800m interval run + ride; Actual- Rest. I knew in advance that the ride wasn’t going to happen because Mike was out of town, which meant I had to get home right after work to let the dogs out. I stupidly left my run for the afternoon and got stormed out.

Wednesday: Planned- FitCrew + 3m recovery run; Actual- FitCrew in the AM + 4x800m interval run in the PM. I shifted things back a day which resulted in running intervals on tired legs. After the intervals is when I felt the tendonitis flare up. The morning’s WOD (3 x 15 min AMRAP WODS):

The evening interval run splits (target pace for the 800s was 7:50 min/mile):

Thursday: Planned- FitCrew; Actual- FitCrew. The tendonitis was definitely present and when I showed up to FitCrew I stupidly kept quiet about the pain until after the WOD. I couldn’t help myself though, this WOD was made for me. Running with a fire hose? Yes please! Did 20lb fire hose, 115lb back squat, 3 rounds in 41 minutes.

I was hobbling a little on Thursday afternoon and so I decided to actually use my brain and rest until I felt better. Unfortunately that was for the next 3 days.

Friday: Planned- 6 mile run + FitCrew; Actual- Rest.

Saturday: Planned- Ride; Actual- Rest

Sunday: Planned- 8 mile run; Actual- Rest

At least today I’m feeling 95% better and am confident that I’ll be able to run pain free tomorrow. This is a lesson I seem to have to learn over and over, I’m definitely guilty of wanting to do it all. Moving forward I’ve dropped the interval runs and vow not to do speed work on tired legs. And of course, not push through pain, that’s just stupid.

So remember when I bought a road bike, oohhhh…. two months ago? Well. I immediately wanted a tri bike also. Yet I showed immense restraint and avoided perusing the racks at my LBS (local bike shop). HOWEVER, I can’t say the same for my husband. He knew I wanted one, and really, he wanted another bike to tinker with (because 3 isn’t enough) so he constantly checked Craigslist looking for the perfect deal. We knew we would go the used route again because my requirements were a good brand, full carbon frame and at least Shimano Ultegra components. These things added up are expensive! So to make a long story short, I present to you my latest gift from my wonderful husband:

The Orbea Ordu, full carbon frame and Shimano Ultegra components. The story of this bike is too amazing not to share. The original owner (aka the guy we bought it from) had herniated 3 disks in his back and was paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors predicted he would never walk without a cane again. After intense physical therapy he not only walked unassisted, he trained for and completed a full Ironman! This is the very bike he rode those 112 miles on! I feel so inspired by the history of this bike and honored to be the next one to ride it. Who knows, maybe it has two Ironmans (Ironmen?) in it! 😉

Moving right along to the running addiction from the cycling addiction. Week two of training for the Space Coast Marathon went really well, I can’t wait until the long runs start getting longer, that’s when the fun really begins!

For the non-runners, a Tempo run is where you run for a set time or distance and gradually build up to a pre-determined speed (usually between 10K and half marathon race pace) and hold that speed for a length of time and then gradually decrease speed. So for example, I ran 10 minutes at an easy pace that gradually got faster, then 10 minutes at Tempo pace (8:09-8:31 min/mile) and then 10 minutes at a pace that gradually got slower.

Wednesday– Planned: FitCrew + 3 mile recovery run; Actual- FitCrew + 3 mile recovery run (10:10 min/mile average pace). The run was glorious! The slower (for me) pace helped dust off what felt like cobwebs from the previous days workouts and the morning’s WOD. Speaking of WOD… I really struggled with Candy, it was a very humbling WOD to say the least.

Friday– Planned: 5 mile run + FitCrew; Actual: 5 mile run (9:43 min/mile average pace) + FitCrew. I went for a run first thing in the morning then came home and refueled, changed and went to FitCrew. Surprisingly I felt really good and strong at FitCrew despite already having gone for a moderate paced run. The WOD (95lb front squat):

Sunday- Planned: 11 miles with last 2 miles at goal pace; Actual: 11 miles with last 2 miles at goal pace! Most of my long runs have goal pace miles thrown in the mix. Last training cycle I ran a lot of my long runs on fatigued legs (thanks FitCrew) and found it really helpful, mentally. This time around I decided to add in goal pace miles to simulate what it would feel like to run that pace on tired legs, aka near the end of the race.

Last week I felt like I had dead legs during my long run and mentioned it to Andrew. He made some fueling suggestions and they worked like a charm! Not only are my splits awesome but I also felt strong. Thanks Andrew! [Fueling/calf stretching after miles 4 and 8]

I’m very pleased with my training for week 2. I return to the orthodontist at the end of the month with high hopes that he gives me a better window of dates for surgery. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to officially register for Space Coast Marathon before the fees go up!

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This week was the last of my base building, aka fooling around. For the past many weeks, what I’ve done for training has been whatever I’ve felt like. I made a base building plan but didn’t really stick to it. Instead of forcing it, I decided to just wing it since I suffered from both a strained calf and burnout at the end of this past season. I feel like this week I finally found my mojo again [and no Andrew, it wasn’t on the pull-up bar! 😉 ] and only missed one workout, my evening ride that got rained out. The stubborn calf has been feeling mostly good too, so that helps.

Before I get into this week’s training, here are a couple photos from the past week:

The dogs and I had an impromptu photo shoot. I was foam rolling one night, they were being extra cute and I had my phone handy.

And here are some notable eats from the past week. A Rum Runner from my trip to Frenchy’s with Jena, Paleo Protein Waffles and beef lettuce wraps with sweet potato ‘fries’ (baked) and steamed asparagus.

Tuesday: Planned: ride (cycling); Actual: FitCrew. My afternoon ladies ride was cancelled due to rain. I did 95 lbs on the bench press and modified air dyne for jump rope [I’m still not doing any jump rope or box jumps since my calf is still acting sketchy].

Thursday: Planned: 4 miles; Actual: FitCrew + 3 miles recovery, 10:20min/mile average [treadmill] Obviously I flip-flopped Wednesday and Thursday training. {I had a full skin check with the dermatologist, everything looks good!} On the WOD: 115 lbs deadlift. I started with the air squats/rope climb with a time of 14:20, took a short rest and then did the deadlift/HSPU in 5:XX. As I was deadlifting Niels came over, laughed his evil little laugh and told me he had a surprise when I was done. The surprise? 6 laps [running] on now shredded legs. Whee! The feeling reminded me of roughly mile 16 of a marathon.

Friday: Planned: FitCrew; Actual: FitCrew. I did 85 lbs on the bench press and between 5-8 reps on each for every round. We had about 15 minutes left once everyone was done so Niels lined us [20ish people] all up and had us do a plank challenge. Hold plank and everyone takes a turn doing 20 push-ups. Thankfully we only went down the line once but we were in plank [I took little breaks] for close to 10 minutes. Evil.

Saturday: Planned: ride (cycling); Actual: 21.34 mile ride with Mike, 19.9MPH average. We were obviously struggling in the first 5 miles with the head-wind and the overwhelming quad soreness from Thursday’s WOD. Sometime during mile 6 a [faster] friend of ours passed us and told us to jump in the draft of his 3 person group. You don’t gotta tell me twice! We stayed with them until the half-way point and then made our way back to the car with a tail-wind. Overall an awesome ride!

Sunday: Planned: 8 miles; Actual: 8 miles, 10:00min/mile average.

This run felt really good mentally and physically. I forgot how much I love waking up before the sun, strapping on a full fuel belt and just cruising. My target long run training pace range is 9:29-10:29min/mile. Today my pace was on the lower end of that range and I was making an effort to just relax, go easy and not worry about pace. My low heart rate and giant smile at the finish was very encouraging. I’ll be training for a 3:55 marathon (8:59min/mile pace) and if my long runs continue to go this well, I might adjust that goal a bit. Space Coast Marathon here I come!

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It’s been a crazy two weeks with today being my first day off! I have 2 race recaps coming, a 5K and another half marathon. First though, I thought I’d share the WODs (workout of the day) from the last couple of weeks. I’ll even throw in a video of Mike from CrossFit the other day! 😉

Unfortunately you won’t see much running this first week because I got another sinus infection. I was still doing well at CrossFit but dreaded the thought of going for a run.

1/30: CrossFit.

2/2: CrossFit

2/3: CrossFit

This second week I had two races over the coming weekend so I scheduled my FitCrew training sessions accordingly. I also did a new (to me) speed work out, mile repeats, to test out my intended pace for the 5K I had on my race schedule for Saturday.

2/6: CrossFit + 4.5 miles

I loved my pace for this run! It felt easy, but was pretty fast (for me).

2/7: CrossFit + 3 x 1 mile repeats (5 miles total)

As you can see in the above splits, I didn’t quite finish that last fast mile. I blame the little girl that hit me in the quad with a softball. (I was running at a park with a track.) While it didn’t really hurt, she was only ~7 years old, it completely threw off my mental game.

I was very surprised to see my heart rate so low for this. I really felt like I was working really hard but my heart rate didn’t get that high. I expected to see it well into the high 180s but it never got higher than 182bpm and that was at the very end. Stupid brain always getting in my way!

2/8: CrossFit

2/11: Saint Stephen’s Falcon Run 5K- recap coming soon!

2/12: St. Petersburg Rock n Roll Half Marathon- recap coming soon!

And I’ll leave you with this:

Mike doing a 25 pound weighted rope climb (one hand each rope)! I have to brag for him for a minute, this morning at CrossFit he did a 70 pound weighted pull-up (2 actually)! Sorry ya’ll, he’s taken! 😉